Warrendale, PA, Dec. 4, 2006 – Robert Manelski of Boeing Commercial Airplanes has been selected to receive SAE International’s Marvin Whitlock Award. He will be presented the award at the SAE AeroTech Congress and Exhibition in Los Angeles, September 2007.
This award, established in 1988, recognizes an individual for significant technical contributions related to the operational availability of aircraft. Operational availability includes areas such as repair design, tooling, maintenance practices, logistics, inspection, modification and safety. The award commemorates the late Marvin Whitlock, senior vice president of maintenance and member of the board of directors for United Airlines.
Manelski is director of the Operations Center for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Located in Seattle, the centralized facility provides airline customers comprehensive access to airplane support services, such as spare parts, maintenance and engineering. The around-the-clock center focuses on integrating responses to urgent customer requests that require 24-hour or less turnaround time.
Before being named to his current position in April 2005, Manelski was director of Boeing Airplane Health Management, a diagnostic and prognostic maintenance service designed to increase airplane availability at airlines. His earlier roles with Boeing include chief mechanic, head of the Rapid Response Center, and manager of Airplane Systems Technical Services. He has also held positions in field service, design engineering and service engineering.
He has two published documents on aircraft maintenance and is a member of the maintenance systems standards committee for Aeronautical Radio, Inc. In addition to bachelor's degrees in aviation technology and electrical engineering, Manelski is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an airframe and powerplant mechanic.
